How to Block Words on Instagram

Tired of seeing spammy comments, offensive DMs, or just plain negativity on your Instagram profile? You can create a more positive and productive space by blocking specific words, phrases, numbers, and emojis from ever appearing in your comments or DMs. This guide will walk you through exactly how to use Instagram's native tools to filter out unwanted content automatically, giving you more control over your community.

Why You Should Be Blocking Words on Instagram

Proactively managing the language used on your profile isn’t about censorship, it's about effective community management. You are building a home for your audience, and setting house rules is a necessary part of that process. By filtering your comments and message requests, you can:

• Create a Safer Community: Keep hate speech, bullying, and offensive language out of your space. This makes it a more welcoming place for your followers to engage with you and each other.
• Stop Spam in its Tracks: Goodbye, "DM for collab" and "Check the link in my bio" comments from bot accounts. Blocking common spam phrases automatically cleans up your comment sections, making them look more professional and trustworthy.
• Protect Your Brand's Reputation: Prevent competitors from promoting themselves in your comments or keep discussions from being derailed by off-topic, inflammatory, or false information. This helps you maintain control over your brand narrative.
• Improve Your Mental Health: As a creator or social media manager, constantly seeing and deleting negative comments is draining. Automating the removal of triggering or abusive content frees your time and mental energy to focus on what matters most: creating great content and connecting with your real audience.

The Primary Tool: Instagram’s "Hidden Words" Feature

Instagram has a powerful, built-in tool called "Hidden Words" that allows you to automatically hide comments and message requests containing specific terms you've identified. When someone uses a word or phrase from your list, their comment or message request is sent to a hidden folder that you can review later - or ignore completely. It won't be visible to you or your other followers.

This is your primary defense for creating a custom filter tailored to your account's specific needs. Setting it up is simple and gives you lasting control over your digital environment.

How to Block Custom Words and Phrases: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to build your filter? The process is the same whether you have a Personal, Creator, or Business account. Follow these steps to set up your custom blocked words list.

1. Navigate to Your Settings
   Open the Instagram app and go to your profile page by tapping your profile picture in the bottom-right corner. From there, tap the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
2. Find "Hidden Words"
   In the menu that appears, scroll down and tap on Settings and privacy. On the next screen, keep scrolling until you find the "How others can interact with you" section, and tap on Hidden Words.
3. Understand Your Options
   Here you will find several toggles. It’s useful to turn on both Hide Comments and Advanced Comment Filtering. The advanced filtering option uses Instagram's own AI to automatically hide comments that it identifies as potentially harmful or spammy, catching things you might not have thought to add to your list. Your primary tool, however, is the custom list.
4. Add Your Custom Words
   Scroll down and tap on Manage custom words and phrases. This is where you'll build your list.
5. Build Your Blocked List
   In the text box provided, type the words, phrases, numbers, or emojis you want to block. Make sure to separate each entry with a comma. For example: DM for collab, buy followers, bitcoin, 💰.
6. Turn On the Filters
   Once you've added your list, navigate back one screen. You will see two important toggles at the bottom: Hide comments and Hide message requests. Make sure both of these are turned on. If you only turn on "Hide comments," your custom list will only apply to comments, not incoming DM requests.

That's it! Any incoming comment or DM request containing one of your blocked terms will now be automatically hidden from public view and moved to the "hidden requests" folder for you to review at your leisure.

Best Practices for Creating a Strong Blocked Words List

Knowing how to block words is easy. Knowing what to block is where the strategy comes in. A strong list is an evolving mix of common spam, brand-specific terms, and general negativity. Here are some tips for building a list that really works.

1. Start with Obvious Spam and Scams

This is the low-hanging fruit. Your first goal should be to eliminate the most common and annoying spam that clutters your comment section. Think like a bot.

• "Collab" Spam: Include variations like collab, collaboration, ambassador program, "send pics to".
• Crypto & Forex Spam: Add terms like bitcoin, crypto, forex, trader, investing, USDT.
• Follow/Growth Scams: Add phrases like follow for follow, buy followers, gain followers, check my bio.
• Adult Content Links: Common spam often involves terms like OnlyFans, Snapchat girl, spicy and emojis like 🍆, 🍑.

2. Include Brand-Specific Negative Terms

Think about your brand, products, or service. What kind of negative conversation should be filtered out to maintain a constructive environment?

• Competitor Names: If you find other accounts repeatedly comment to poach your audience, add their account handles or brand names to the list.
• Common Misspellings: Just as with your username, make sure to consider common misspellings of your brand name if people frequently use them to spread negativity.
• Common Complaints: If trolls always come for your pricing with words like “overpriced” or “too expensive," adding these keywords may be worth it.

3. Account for Variations and Misspellings

People trying to get around filters are creative. Your list should be too. Don't just add a problematic word, add its variations.

• Different Word Forms: If you want to block "hack," also add hacker, hacked, hacking.
• Number and Symbol Substitutions: Bad actors often replace letters with numbers to avoid filters (known as leetspeak). If you want to block the word "scam," also consider adding sc4m or s-c-a-m.
• Plurals and Possessives: A simple "word" won't block "words." Consider plurals too.

4. Stay General but Be Careful Not to Over-Filter

Adding specific egregious insults is a good start, but some negativity comes in a milder form. However, be careful not to make your filters so broad that you silence legitimate conversation or customer feedback.

For example, if you sell a difficult product, adding the word "hate" might feel empowering. But you might miss a valid comment like, "I would hate for this feature to break on me, can you tell me more about the warranty?" Context matters. Try starting with an exact phrase like "I hate this" instead of just the single word. You can always make the filter more aggressive later if needed.

5. Review and Update Your List Regularly

Spam tactics change, new slang emerges, and your brand's needs may evolve. Make it a habit to check your hidden requests folder every few months. Are new spammy phrases getting through? Add them to your list. Is your list accidentally hiding legitimate comments? Refine it. Your blocked list isn't a "set it and forget it" tool, it's a living document that should adapt over time.

Final Thoughts

Using Instagram’s Hidden Words feature is one of the most effective ways to take control of your notifications and create a more positive, on-brand community space. By building a custom filter and regularly updating it, you can automatically remove the noise and focus on engaging with the audience that truly matters.

Manually filtering comments and requests is a great first step, but a unified moderation system is essential for truly staying on top of community engagement. That’s why we built Postbase with a centralized inbox, bringing all your comments and DMs from every social platform into one streamlined view. This makes it easier to manage the conversations that matter, respond faster, and ensure no important customer or follower interaction ever gets missed in the chaos.